Take Heart

Edited by Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair, Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry was a weekly newspaper column that featured previously published poems by a Maine poet. More than two dozen newspapers throughout Maine published Take Heart and reached hundreds of thousands of readers each week from May 2011 to December 2015.

McNair selected each poem and wrote a brief introduction about the poet’s background and connection to Maine, or the history, context, and themes of the poem. Working in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, this service was offered free to any interested newspapers or publications.

Take Heart was administered by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Take Heart Anthologies

The anthologies Take Heart: Poems from Maine and Take Heart: More Poems from Maine collect the nearly five years of Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair’s weekly newspaper column, which he launched in 2011 with the support of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. The poems are chosen from the work of poets all over Maine and represent a wide cultural view of the state.